Ya gotta stop doing this to yourself (and others!)….

Here’s what ‘you better watch out’ for during the holidays…that big ole’ irritation called ‘unmet expectations’. You know what I’m talking about…

We do all that we can and still we end up feeling like we fell short. We often get tired, irritable and disappointed in ourselves and in the way things did not work out the way we wanted them to. We look around at all of the amazing things that ‘everyone else’ around us accomplished…the pinterest-perfect magical experiences that (it LOOKS like) they were able to pull off…and then we beat ourselves up over it.

What is the truth in all of this, beautiful friend? No matter what did or did not happen….here we are. We are HERE…now. We have this chance to make the most of where we are now. We have this chance to be the best we can be right now. We have this chance to put on a smile, to see the good, to spread joy, to give ourselves a break, to give everyone else a break….to tell others that it’s ok if they didn’t get everything done that they were wanting to get done.

We get to STOP, look around…and see that even though things might not be the magazine picture way we wanted them to be, we can still make them into wonderful memories by simply showing up with kindness. We can enjoy. We can let the people around us know that we love them. We can BE IN THE MEMORIES instead of trying to orchestrate them for everyone else.

This season is about LOVE in action. We can always love no matter how many things got baked, delivered or caroled (or didn’t). We can always love….and that is the best gift of all anyway.